So… another phase of parish ministry begins today as I begin to serve the parish and community of Zion Episcopal Church, Washington, NC. I have known bigger parishes in terms of buildings, people etc. but I have never know a parish with a bigger heart to know Jesus and make Jesus known.
Zion Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church complex located near Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina. It was built in 1856, and is a vernacular Greek Revival style frame building. Also on the property are a contributing church cemetery, rectory (1884-1885), garage, well house, and fence.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Here’s the first sermon… around divorce, of all things! The text is below the video.
Sermon preached at Zion Episcopal, Washington NC; Sunday October 3rd 2021
The Reverend Alan Neale; “Love to Be, Love to Change”
Terry and Gary had not been to church for many, many years though they had been brought up in a devout and traditional Roman Catholic family. One Christmas Eve they attended a church I served in Philadelphia. They sat way up in the balcony, at the far end of the church, almost as if they wanted to keep a safe distance.
During the worship they heard these words, “Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome to this, the Lord’s Table”. Gary had even pointed out these very words to Terry, printed in the church bulletin. Terry’s poignant response to Gary was this, “They’re not meant for me!”
What had happened to Terry, what possibly had she done, that she could not hear and receive these words of grace, acceptance, welcome?
What had happened? Terry was divorced; she must have felt she carried a “D” on her forehead!
Just as the Pharisees in today’s Gospel use “divorce” in an aggressive, angry, alienating way; and as the disciples later in the Gospel repel with vigor and venom the children – so Terry felt. I know, personally and pastorally, she is not alone.
In today’s Gospel from Mark, the religious leaders come to accost Jesus with their questions; Thayer says the Greek word ἐπερωτάω suggests to accost one with an inquiry, to interrogate. They presume to talk to him as if they were superior beings, living on superior planes. They heartlessly use a personal situation to batter Jesus as they test him.
By the way, look further in the Gospel and you see the disciples (yes, the disciples) acting as judges, assessors, critics of the souls of others.
Friends, this attitude of undeserved superiority, of careless treatment, of nasty bullying is not uncommonly found in church but it should not, need not, may not be so!
A friend of mine, a priest with whom I served in Newport, visited Zion some weeks back with her husband and one of her sons. She wrote to me and said “the church is one of heart/love and spirit” – and long may this reign! AMEN?
But back to divorce.
Jesus in these few verses establishes two paramount, two pivotal, two profound pillars of God’s dealing with you and with me.
The first pillar? The Lord expects of us more than ever we feel we can achieve, the Lord looks with pity and never with blame and ever sees the potential of lives rescued, restored, redeemed.
Yes, as a divorced and happily married person, I believe the divine hope is for marriages, committed relationships, to be for life, to take on that indefinable, impalpable, inexpressible quality of indissolubility. This is the divine intent… and yet (to quote our old 1662 BCP) “marriage was instituted in the time of man’s innocency”; oh yes, we have been truly barred from the garden of innocence and paradise and yet there pulsates in the heart of God the process of restoration for each and all of us.
The second pillar? Mindful of our frailty (Psalm 103:14 “he remembers that we are but dust…”), we are rescued from dashed hopes, broken expectations, violated promises and, in the economy of God; we discover new life is possible.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, she/he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come”.
Out of the “hardness of our hearts”, the Lord creates a fertile soil productive of the most beautiful of flowers beyond the wildest dreams of the most proficient and dedicated master gardeners!
Over recent years, I have had close encounters with cardiologists. Now, our God is a divine cardiologist always seeking to work on the heart. The “hardness of heart” that Jesus mentions (sklerokardia) refers to a heart made dry, calcified through lack of moisture, lack of oil, lack of God’s spirit and so leads to rebellion, obstinacy, destruction. We read “An obstinate, hard heart which lacks the oil of the Holy Spirit and hence implies rebellion – i.e. someone refusing to be receptive (obedient) to God’s in-working of faith”.
So we should pray (Psalm 51:10) “Create in me a clean heart, O God…”.
So we should be encouraged to read (Jeremiah 32:39) “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” – my friends, this is cardio-surgery at its most profound, eternal, primal.
Grace enables us to begin anew! A marriage after divorce (in the hands of God) is not a second marriage as if “second best”, it is not a re-marriage as if a re-tread of a used tire. No, no, assuredly no… and so, thank God, the liturgy used for a wedding of divorced persons is just the same, the very same (word for word, comma for comma…) as for a couple never married before.
Years ago, I watched the film Junebug (released in 2005) and, I discovered yesterday, it was written and directed by two North Carolinians! Anyway, towards the end of the film Ashley is desperately trying to encourage her husband Johnny… she says to him, “God loves you just the way you are… but He loves you so much He wants you to change”. Since then I have seen that quotation attributed to several others, but I am happy to leave it in the minds of a writer from North Carolina.
“God loves you just the way you” – if this were all, then it would be as if God were indifferent, careless, complacent.
“But God loves you so much God wants you to change” – if this were all, then it would be as if God were constantly nagging, cajoling, prodding.
Alleluia, friends, in the economy of God these two attitudes are held in perfect balance. By God’s grace we try to get this right, often we fail… and often we begin again… all by God’s grace.
May our worship today re-establish in our hearts and minds God’s love that accepts and transforms; and may our worship give us grace to offer acceptance and transformation to each one we meet… at home, at work, in shop or store.
Please Lord… AMEN